How can I remove a ‘household cleaner’ residue from glassware?

Q: How I can I remove a ‘household cleaner’ residue from glassware?  There appears to be an “oily” rainbow like appearance.  I’ve tried a few options but to no avail.

A: There are a few different types of the ‘household cleaner’ brand you mentioned, but whichever, we do hear of these complaints from time to time.  For folks that truly need residue free glassware, Alconox Inc. and our full suite of completely free-rinsing, residue-free, biodegradable, drain safe detergents is the place to be!

It is somewhat difficult to figure out what the film might be. Could be residual surfactant, residual polymeric ‘protectant’, emollient, fragrances or a whole host of other residues that are very common to cleaners used for the home. But of course is not ok for the critical cleaning applications we specialize in.

When fighting a particular persistent, or adherent residue, a general good rule is to try more. More detergent, more time, more temperature.

Increasing the detergent concentration increases capacity. Up to 5% or more can be necessary at times.

Increasing the time of a soak, scrub, ultrasonic or other cleaning mechanism simply allows for the whole array of ways a detergent can clean, to work.

Increasing the temperature expedites cleaning (in almost all cases). If this is indeed a polymeric residue, softening it would be likely needed. This typically happens as you approach 175F/80C.

Mechanical action can be a great equalizer as well. Perhaps the most important but basic cleaning mechanism is elbow grease! If the geometry of the glassware makes this challenging, an ultrasonic can work as well.

There is a slight chance, if that was some type of sensitive glass as we define here: Art and Other Sensitive Glass Cleaning, that the glass might have been damaged. If so, I would recommend keeping cleaning times down to a minimum and avoiding extended soaks.

Detonox® Ultimate Precision Cleaner, is often used to remove the toughest residues in manual applications.  I would recommend looking at this detergent as this residues appears stubborn.

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